3D laser scanning is indispensable for pre-existing architecture or historical preservation. Because the data collected from the scans can provide information on support analysis, design, and prefabrication, 3D laser scanning is ideal for civil engineers, architects, CAD professionals, and contractors. Scanning can be used for a variety of applications. Its accuracy minimizes construction rework, adding to laser scanning’s cost-efficiency.

3-D Laser Scanning can be used for a variety of historical building engineering applications, from existing as-built drawings, to reverse engineering of historical architecture and much more.

Our High-Definition laser surveying equipment not only offers additional benefits to the measurement professional, but also to the recipients and users of accurate spatial data sets. Civil engineers,
plant designers, CAD professionals, architects, contractors, and owners / operators can all reap the cost and added-value benefits
that our surveying equipment provides.

Minimized construction rework due to interferences
and the ability to reduce field fabrication work.

Reduced facility downtime due to fast, unobtrusive scene capture and minimal field assembly.

One of the many benefits of scanning as opposed to traditional surveying methods is that any change in scope by the client will not require another trip out to the site. All data for the site is already contained within the scan, saving time and money.

Architecture / Historical Preservation Case Studies

Historical Amusement Park Building

Task:
Scan the interior of a building of historical significance constructed in the late 1800s and modified in the mid 1900s with an added second story. Support Columns and Beams on the first floor were the focus of the scan in order to analyze the building’s structural integrity and bring it up to current required building and loading codes.

Recently In the Newspaper:
Putting the pieces together for restoring Wayne County CourthouseGaining a better understanding of damage at courthouseBy Bobby Warren

Wooster – When President George W. Bush was running for reelection, his campaign bus traveled through downtown Wooster, passing thousands of people gathered at the public square and Wayne County Courthouse.

Along the rooftops were Secret Service and law enforcement agents with long rifles, standing up for the preservation of the leader of the free world.

Well there, have been a couple of men on the rooftops in the downtown area setting up targets below, and while they are working on preservation, it is not of a political figure, rather a government structure. They were not shooting guns, rather shooting digital photographs of the building’s exterior.

Ryan Hacker, president of TruePoint Laser Scanning, and Jonathan Rohrs, a scan technician, have been setting up targets around the courthouse along Liberty and Market streets. These targets give the laser scanning device a point of reference as to where the photographs are being taken.
The Device first emits a laser beam, which detects everything around it. Hacker said the scanner captures about 1 million measurements per second.

The Wayne County commissioners hired the company to create a three-dimensional model and digital image of the courthouse exterior. These are no existing plans for the outside of the building and county Administrator Patrick Herron said TruePoint will be able to provide as-built drawings.
The county is having the model and imaging done in order to provide the architect with a better understanding of the damage to the outside of the courthouse.

The laser is very accurate rate, Hacker said. It is within 2-4 millimeters. Because of this, contractors who are bidding on the project will have more of an idea of what needs to be fixed. They will all work off the same information instead of having to do site visits and try to determine for themselves the extent of the problems.

“(the county) should get much tighter bids and less change orders,” Hacker said.
Rohrs said he is trying to capture all of the ornamentation on the courthouse. With each pass of the laser measurements and photographs he and Hacker are gathering pieces of a digital puzzle that will be stitched together back at the offices in Toledo.

The process is similar to capturing geospatial information from satellites. There is data related to where each point of the building exists on an X-, Y- and Z-axis. The photographs are then layered on top of the laser measurements, Hacker said the technology he uses is still on the early edge, but it is slowly becoming, more mainstream. “Not everyone has heard of it,” he said. It seems to be more prevalent on the East and West coasts and in the South.

TruePoint’s laser scanners have been used at crash scenes, on building facades and building interiors. Generally, they are used more on major renovation projects, however, Hacker said some of his clients have contracted with the company to make sure what is being built is within the tolerances of the project.

*DISCLAIMER: 3D Laser scanning is a measurement tool to assist in capturing as-built conditions of existing spaces and should be used in conjunction with other sound industry practices for verifying these conditions, including but not limited to: site visits, manual field measurements and verifications of scan data, to ensure its accuracy prior to design and engineering. Because this data can be used for various applications and disciplines outside the scope of the original field scanning and beyond our control, we cannot guarantee that the data is accurate for these uses.